Cooking with character fiesta in Cordova

CEBU, Philippines - The invitation came from CEO Alex Farrugia of the Cordova Reef Village

Resort & Island and Sun Beach Resort (phone 2381878 4968079, 4968050 email: www.cordovareef.com) to join the town of Cordova in celebrating the feast of its patron saint, San Roque, last August 15.

Cordova is located 19 km. inland of Mactan Island with 13 barangays and the major occupation of its people is fishing. This activity is given importance through the Dinagat Festival with street dancing reflecting the culture of its fisher folks. Originally, the town was a barrio known as Day-as, part of the town of Opon. Later it separated and became am autonomous unit and was renamed as   Cordova (http://www.ngkhai.com/pointcebu).

Each town in the Philippines celebrates an annual fiesta usually dedicated to a particular saint with the exception of one town (if I’m not mistaken, Ayungon, Negros Oriental; where the patron is Todos Los Santos).   In the past, your preferred food columnist had a list of all the dates of the fiestas in Cebu and almost always, invitations were accepted, except from the town of Bantayan since its fiesta occurs during the typhoon season; hence the preferred religious activity is Holy Week with its special Papal permission to eat lechon even on Good Friday!

My usual activity when attending fiestas start with a visit to the local church to pray and light a candle. This is followed by a cultural enlightenment on the cuisine offered by the host with food that has Spanish links like Paella a la Valenciana, chicken relleno, morcon, caldereta, callos con garbanzo, etc. Foods considered unsafe to eat, according to my grandmother would be salads, kinilaw and fresh lumpia since they loose freshness very quickly. No intestinal disorders ever occur because of strict compliance to such advice. If provided with overnight accommodation, dance pa gyud with the candidates of the Miss Township.

This is all in the past since deleted na such list; main culprit is the exasperating traffic and the over indulgence of liquor among its celebrants with deterioration in peace and order. More bad news is that in Madrid (Fiestas de San Isidro) and most in Spain, fiestas have “largely lost its religious character… and the city government uses San Isidro as a platform to represent the best of Madrid culture, old and new, from bullfights to break dancing.”

However, when a colleague from La Chaine des Rotisseurs, Cordova Reef GM Alex Farrugia, summons you to a fiesta, it is most difficult gyud to decline such invitation. Never mind the tortuous traffic leading to the place and some annoying bystanders who are drunk before noon because once you are inside the Cordova Reef Village, you are magically transported, excuse me, far from the maddening crowd. In fact, when I arrived, the sheer tranquility made me wonder whether there was a fiesta at all!

Lunch consisted of the following dishes: Seafood Soup, Shrimp Tempura, Bam-i, Lapulapu in Sweet Sour Sauce, Roast Leg of Calf, Pinakbet and the ubiquitous Lechon. Dessert was a Platter of Assorted Fruits.

The soup used two types of seashells, a small one (tahong) and a much larger type (Balinsa?). When you cook two shells of different sizes, sometimes problems do occur. If the small ones are cooked, the larger ones are half cooked; by the time the larger ones are cooked, overcooked na the smaller ones.

The fish and the shrimps used were very fresh and the presence of the lechon and roasted calf was enough reason to delay any attempts at dieting. My favorite dish though at the Cordova Reef Village Resort & Island was the Cebuano version of a noodle dish, the Bam-i.